A conventional gas turbine engine includes various rotor blades in the fan, compressor and turbine sections thereof, which are removably mounted to respective rotor discs. Each of the rotor blades includes a blade root at the radially inner end thereof. Each of the blade roots conventionally includes one or more pairs of lobes which can axially slid into and be retained in one of a plurality of axially extending attachment slots defined in the periphery of the rotor disc. Various of blade retaining apparatuses are conventionally used to affix turbine blades to a rotor disc of a gas turbine engine. Conventionally, blade retaining apparatuses do not provide sealing functions to reduce gas leakages through gaps between blade roots and disc fixings. Furthermore, when a blade root slides into an attachment slot of the rotor disc for assembly of the turbine rotor, it usually requires an axial alignment of the blade with the rotor disc before a blade retaining apparatus can be placed in place.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide an improved blade retaining apparatus for turbine assemblies of gas turbine engines in order to meet the demanding requirements of various aspects of high efficiency gas turbine engines.